Even though scholars have made substantial contributions in connecting the fields of transitional justice and memory studies, important questions remain unanswered. The question of sequencing is one ...of them. How does a certain TJ mechanism condition the implementation of subsequent mechanisms and how together they shape memory narratives in a given society? This article builds on the case of Mozambique. Soon after the signing of the General Peace Agreement in 1992, the Frelimo-led government approved Amnesty Law 15/92 and with it, the past was to be left in the past. Such a choice was different from the one taken by Samora Machel—Mozambique’s first president—between 1975 and 1982. By promoting a quasi-truth commission, Machel revisited Mozambique’s colonial past and brought comprometidos’ actions into the open. This article finds that whether the government opened up about the past or sought to leave it behind, the result has been the same: the celebratory reproduction of the liberation war narrative. Resorting to path dependence and critical junctures, this study explains the ways in which such a narrative has become hegemonic throughout the last four decades.
In his speech during the signing of the General Peace Agreement (GPA) in 1992, former president Joaquim Chissano announced that reconciliation was the 'responsibility of all Mozambicans', setting the ...tone of political discourses as well as of the GPA itself. A few years later, scholars and practitioners alike declared Mozambique reconciled. They suggested that the country's formula for success resided in its original combination of amnesty, at the national level, with the traditional healing and cleansing rituals, at the community level. This article takes a step back and examines whether reconciliation ever took root in Mozambique. Drawing on specialised literatures on transitional justice and reconciliation, as well as newspapers, documents from intergovernmental organisations and semi-structured interviews, it revisits the development of reconciliation in the country from 1992 to 2015. The conclusions challenge the idea that Mozambique was once reconciled.
This study addresses the phenomenon of misinformation about misinformation , or politicians “crying wolf” over fake news. Strategic and false claims that stories are fake news or deepfakes may ...benefit politicians by helping them maintain support after a scandal. We posit that this benefit, known as the “liar’s dividend,” may be achieved through two politician strategies: by invoking informational uncertainty or by encouraging oppositional rallying of core supporters. We administer five survey experiments to over 15,000 American adults detailing hypothetical politician responses to stories describing real politician scandals. We find that claims of misinformation representing both strategies raise politician support across partisan subgroups. These strategies are effective against text-based reports of scandals, but are largely ineffective against video evidence and do not reduce general trust in media. Finally, these false claims produce greater dividends for politicians than alternative responses to scandal, such as remaining silent or apologizing.
Bacteria have been constantly competing for nutrients and space for billions of years. During this time, they have evolved many different molecular mechanisms by which to secrete proteinaceous ...effectors in order to manipulate and often kill rival bacterial and eukaryotic cells. These processes often employ large multimeric transmembrane nanomachines that have been classified as types I-IX secretion systems. One of the most evolutionarily versatile are the Type IV secretion systems (T4SSs), which have been shown to be able to secrete macromolecules directly into both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. Until recently, examples of T4SS-mediated macromolecule transfer from one bacterium to another was restricted to protein-DNA complexes during bacterial conjugation. This view changed when it was shown by our group that many
species carry a T4SS that is specialized to transfer toxic bacterial effectors into rival bacterial cells, resulting in cell death. This review will focus on this special subtype of T4SS by describing its distinguishing features, similar systems in other proteobacterial genomes, and the nature of the effectors secreted by these systems and their cognate inhibitors.
Background
Pollen food allergy syndrome (PFAS) related to PR10 from vegetables is common in northern Europe, whereas in Mediterranean countries PFAS has been preferentially associated with profilins. ...However, there are pollen‐allergic patients reactive to Bet v 1 in birch‐free regions. Since it cannot be the primary sensitizer, there has to be another culprit. Quercus ilex is a good candidate as it belongs to the order Fagales. This order includes trees with highly sensitizing pollen such as alder, hazel, hornbeam, oak and chestnut because of the presence of PR10 allergens. PR10 allergens have indeed been described in other Quercus species.
Objective
Our goals were to determine the rate of sensitization to Q. ilex in central Spain and the associated frequency of PFAS; secondly to identify and clone the Q. ilex allergen PR10.
Methods
We included 224 allergic patients with respiratory symptoms to estimate the rate of sensitization. A skin prick test (SPT) and ImmunoCAP were performed. A total of 38 Q. ilex‐sensitized patients were tested using Western blotting to determine the rate of Que i 1. Peptides from Que i 1 were analysed by MALDI‐TOF/TOF and Orbitrap LC‐MSMS. The Que i 1 sequence was first obtained from the Holm oak transcriptome then cloned and expressed in bacteria.
Results
59.8% of pollen‐allergic children were sensitized to Q. ilex. We described and cloned the Q. ilex PR10, Que i 1, which has a sensitization rate of 60.5% and was recognized by 65.4% patients reporting PFAS.
Conclusion and clinical relevance
Sensitization to Q. ilex pollen has increased significantly since 1995. This sensitization could be important, as the presence of PFAS in this population is higher than in patients not sensitized to Q. ilex. The first Q. ilex allergen has been described and is related to PFAS in Spanish patients sensitized to PR10 but not exposed to birch pollen.
En este texto se problematiza la noción de “silencio” y sus usos metafóricos para asistir la movilización de afectos entre los habitantes de Ciudad de México. El argumento toma como premisa que la ...escucha es una experiencia integral (corporal, cognitiva, y senso-afectiva) y una forma de “inscripción en la consciencia y la memoria” (Rivas, 2019; Gallagher, 2016). Seguidamente, se formulan diversas reflexiones al respecto de cómo momentos coyunturales en la historia reciente de Ciudad de México pueden estar moldeando las formas de escuchar, así como de percibir y significar el silencio entre los habitantes de la ciudad capital. Esta referencia a momentos coyunturales implica la consideración de instancias de traumas colectivos, sean estos por causas sociales o naturales, que acaban por ligarse a la memoria colectiva y la historia local de la Ciudad de México. En particular, se describen las reacciones socio-afectivas al terremoto que tuvo lugar en 2017; y su relación senso-perceptual con los seísmos del año 1985 y con dos trágicas masacres estudiantiles ocurridas en 1968 y más recientemente en 2014. Los eventos aludidos han sido de una magnitud afectiva tal que han requerido de un reacomodo sensorial para nombrar lo vivido y, sobre todo, para poder dar sentido a lo perdido, a lo ausente, a lo desaparecido. Estas formas de nombrar –o mejor dicho de no-nombrar– las ausencias, pero sí de performar el dolor que generan, permiten hablar de una reformulación de los significados en torno al referente “silencio”. La propuesta consiste en explorar formas performáticas de la cultura, suponiendo que las modalidades de escucha e interpretación de la díada escucha/silencio en los distintos momentos históricos aludidos permiten conocer los usos afectivos del silencio, la performatividad de la escucha y la función de ambos en el procesamiento colectivo del trauma.
Abstract
Why do politicians cluster the distribution of benefits in the run‐up to elections? I suggest that credit claiming is an explanation for political budget cycles. Brazilian rules banning ...credit claiming before elections while allowing the distribution of benefits until Election Day provides an opportunity to differentiate between distribution and credit claiming combined with distribution as an engine that reinforces political budget cycles. Evidence from housing and conditional‐cash‐transfer programs demonstrates that officials expand these programs before the credit‐claiming ban and halt expansion after the ban yet prior to Election Day. Drawing on social media and qualitative data, I show that politicians use credit claiming to convey information about their competence and attribution. Distribution without attribution reduces the likelihood of political budget cycles compared to distribution with attribution, which together reinforces pre‐election expansion of policy benefits. I rule out rival explanations of clientelism and party favoritism.
Myocarditis is an inflammation of the myocardium that can progress to a more severe phenotype of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Three main harmful factors determine this progression: inflammation, ...cell death, and oxidative stress. Lipoxins and their derivatives are endogenous proresolving mediators that induce the resolution of the inflammatory process. This study aims to determine whether these mediators play a protective role in a murine model of experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) by treating with the lipoxin A4 analog BML‐111. We observed that EAM mice presented extensive infiltration areas that correlated with higher levels of inflammatory and cardiac damage markers. Both parameters were significantly reduced in BML‐treated EAM mice. Consistently, cardiac dysfunction, hypertrophy, and emerging fibrosis detected in EAM mice was prevented by BML‐111 treatment. At the molecular level, we demonstrated that treatment with BML‐111 hampered apoptosis and oxidative stress induction by EAM. Moreover, both in vivo and in vitro studies revealed that these beneficial effects were mediated by activation of Nrf2 pathway through CaMKK2‐AMPKα kinase pathway. Altogether, our data indicate that treatment with the lipoxin derivative BML‐111 effectively alleviates EAM outcome and prevents cardiac dysfunction, thus, underscoring the therapeutic potential of lipoxins and their derivatives to treat myocarditis and other inflammatory cardiovascular diseases.
¿Existe un régimen aural que impacta en la escucha musical en el siglo XXI? De ser así, ¿cómo es que dicho régimen se configura?, ¿qué prácticas de escucha son sustentadas por qué tipo de ...instituciones e ideologías y viceversa? Este artículo aproxima posibles interpretaciones a estas preguntas recurriendo para ello a las prácticas contemporáneas de escucha musical. Presenta una definición de trabajo de "régimen aural" y la ilustra a través de tres problemas contemporáneos en torno a la escucha musical, como son el efecto de la ideología del multiculturalismo en la instauración de dicho régimen, el papel de diferentes industrias (musical, entretenimiento y turismo) e instituciones (universidades, centros culturales y archivos) en el establecimiento de pedagogías de la escucha musical y la construcción de subjetividades musicalmente mediadas. Reviso debates en curso tales como la generación de juicios estéticos sobre las músicas no-occidentales y su relación con una posible "condición postmoderna" (García 2012), la omnipresencia de músicas diversas –y no tan diversas– y el problema resultante de la escucha musical atenta (Kassabian 2013), el papel de las tecnologías para la escucha musical (Erickson y Johanson 2017), y el debate sobre la agencia del sí mismo ante la disyuntiva de qué y no escuchar (Filipovic 2012, Lipari 2014).
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